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YUAN YEN TAI 

The Worthy Son of a Famous 
Fathe?* 



By 
HERBERT E. HOUSE 



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V 



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Copyright, 1902, by Herbert E. House 
New York 



Foreign Missions Library, 156 Fifth Avenue 

NEW YORK 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAY. 13 1902 

Copyright entry 
CLASS Cu xXc. No. 

a. 1- * *) * 

COPY 8. 







YUAN SHIH KAI 

VICEROY OF CHIH LI 

FATHER OF YUAN YEN TAI 



YUAN SHIH KAI. 



His Excellency, Yuan Shih Kai, now forty- 
three years of age, is not, as are many of the high 
officials of China, a Manchu, but is a Chinese, 
a native of the Province of Ho Nan. He was 
nine years minister to Korea, a position given 
him as a reward for an act of exception- 
ally aggressive daring, in which he res- 
cued a Korean prince from the Japanese, 
saving his life. In 1895, after the war 
with Japan, he was given command of one 
branch of the "New Imperial Army," consist- 
ing of about seven thousand raw recruits, 
which he rapidly brought to a state of high 
efficiency, its organization, equipment, drill 
and discipline being thoroughly up to date. In 
December, 1900, he was appointed Governor of 
Shan Tung, where, during the late trouble, he 
ruled with a strong hand, protecting foreigners 
and keeping peace. Here he also planned a 
great school for Western learning, calling a 
Presbyterian missionary to the position of pres- 
ident, giving him a free hand in its develop- 
ment. In November, 1901, he was appointed 
to the position of Governor of the province of 
Chili Li, with the title of Viceroy, in place of Li 
Hung Chang, deceased. 

He has shown himself to be a man of the 
very highest order of executive ability, a broad- 
minded, well-informed conservative reformer, 
just and friendly in his attitude toward for- 
eigners, a sincere patriot, the integrity of whose 
purpose is not doubted by those who best know 
him. He is typical of the men now coming into 
power who are to reorganize the Empire and 
develop the almost unlimited resources of the 
country. 




YUAN YEN TAI 



YUAN YEN TAI. 



In the spring of 1898 there called at my home 
in Tientsin a Chinese gentleman, Dr. Kin Ta 
Ting, who brought with him a young man 
about eighteen years of age who wished to hear 
my gramophone and I think also wished to visit 
a foreigner's family. This young man was 
finely dressed, very attractive in face and man- 
ner and every inch a gentleman. During the 
visit I was told that he was anxious to begin 
the study of English and I remarked that I 
would be glad to be the teacher of so fine a 
young man. 

The following October I was invited to be- 
come his teacher, Dr. Kin telling me that his 
father, Yuan Shih Kai, had instructed him to 
secure a teacher from the missionary class to 
whom he could trust his son. For a year and a 
half thereafter he was my pupil; for three 
months of this time he lived with me at my 
seaside summer home at Pei Tai Ho, 175 miles 
northeast of Tientsin, and I came to know him 
well and to have for him a warm affection. 
Clean in his person and habits, he never touched 
tobacco, opium or wine, and scarcely drank tea, 
explaining that he thought it was not good for 
his health and he wanted all his strength for 
his study. He was wonderfully pure in his 
thought, high in his ambition and intense in his 
passion for knowledge. It is no exaggeration 
to say that he was the most patient and diligent 
student I ever knew. He once said to me, " I 
used to say to my father, ' If you want to give 
me anything don't give me money, give me a 
teacher.'" He also used to remark, "The 
Chinese learning is not useful; the foreign 

~5 



learning is useful," and his mind was always 
full of the things that were to be done for China 
and of what his father hoped to be able to do, 
and of his own possible part in China's future 
development ; though once in great despondency 
he said to me, " My father nearly cried this 
morning, for he says that 'China is finished,' " 
referring to what then seemed an almost hope- 
less condition. 

Our hours together were from eight to twelve, 
and every moment was given to the closest 
application. After a few weeks he consented 
to take a ten-minutes' rest at the end of every 
two hours' study, but he was back at his work 
on the second. At the same time he was giving 
six or more hours a day to Chinese studies, in 
which he was very proficient, though in time I 
prevailed upon him to give less time to Chinese. 
As he was never strong, so much confinement 
and study were breaking his health. 

The official residence was at the military bar- 
racks, twenty-two miles east of Tientsin, in the 
town of Hsiao Chan, a low, level and rather 
unhealthful place in summer. Yen Tai's 
health was such that in the spring of 1899 it 
became apparent that a change of climate and 
an outdoor life was absolutely necessary, but it 
was only by the most earnest urging, coupled 
with plain warnings, that the consent of his 
mother and grandmother was gained for so 
radical a move. It was finally decided that he 
should spend the summer with me and my 
family at the seaside. This opened to him a 
new day of freedom and delight. At home his 
life was largely inactive and secluded, it not 
being good form for the son of a high official to 
be seen out often. Here he was out for his sea 
bath or long walk on the beach in the early 
morning and in the afternoon we were often out 
walking together, talking of what we saw. It 
was most interesting to pick a flower or a blade 
of grass, or take up a stone, look at it and talk 



about it. These things he had never truly seen. 
The sea and the fields and the starry sky talked 
of in our rambles and in connection with our 
studies were a revelation to him. I have never 
seen any one enjoy an experience with more 
boundless zest than he did these summer months. 
The improvement in his health and appearance 
was very great, so that, as he told me, his mother 
hardly knew him when he returned home. 

During the winter we continued our study 
at Hsiao Chan until March, when the condi- 
tions in the country made it necessary for all 
foreigners to be dismissed from Chinese service. 

Always treated by his father and himself 
with the greatest consideration, a few days 
before we left the camp we were given val- 
uable presents and a farewell Chinese dinner, 
served in my home in foreign style, the com- 
bination, as he said with great glee, being his 
invention. By his orders the military band of 
about twenty Chinese players, with foreign 
instruments — a band noted for its great excel- 
lence — was in attendance and as a last selection 
played most beautifully, " God Be With You 
Till We Meet Again." 

The various new and fine American school 
and other books that I procured for him were 
his great delight. His care of those he studied 
was a marvel. He had them covered and 
always handled them with perfectly clean 
hands, so that after weeks of use they looked 
as fresh as new. In marking new words 
that they might be easily reviewed he would 
mark them with only a single small dot. 

It was a great sorrow to us both that we 
were compelled to part and that he must give 
up his study. During the last days we were 
together we talked much of his future, of the 
study that he would continue alone, and of 
books that I would send him. As he was 
leaving me at Tientsin at the close of our last 
hour together, he to go on with the family to 



Shan Tung, where his father had already gone 
as governor, and I soon to start for America, 
just as he was turning from me at the door, I 
remarked, ' ' I'll be sending you things from 
America as soon as I get home," when he 
turned and said most pathetically, and they 
were his last words to me, ' ' Only send me 
books, only send me books," and I have thus 
far sent'him about eighty books, for which he 
has insisted on sending a remittance. 

We have been in quite constant correspond- 
ence during the last two years and the 
following extracts from his letters may be a 
revelation to some of the possible character of 
a Chinese young man. They are given exact- 
ly as written, with the exception of an occa- 
sional correction in spelling, and show how 
quickly and well he was gaining a knowledge 
of English. The letters were written after 
a year and a half of study under my instruction 
and some months of study alone. 

Chi Nan Fu, Shan Tung, China. 
February 12, 1901. 
My Dear Teacher Mr. House: 

I forward you a letter a month ago. Have you re- 
ceived it ? Your kind letter of December 23 is duly 
received. I thank you very much for the Chinese 
Mother Goose Rhymes and the picture, both of which 
interested me very much. In that picture Mrs. and 
you both look very well, and especially Harvey, who 
seems to be much fatter than when he was at Hsiao 
Chan last. I have been longing to visit the friendly 
country to which you belong and your kindest family 
I ever saw. Next spring I shall try my best to go 
abroad. 

Herewith enclosed please find a draft for fifty (50) 
taels. When you shall have received it, please let 
me know. I want to buy some books with this sum as 
I have written you last month. 

Sincerely your scholar, 
Yuan Yen Tai. 
May 9, 1901. 

You do not know how deeply I am longing to go to 
America to complete my studies and to see you and 
Mrs. House, but am sorry I cannot fulfil my wishes 



just at present, and I fear if I do not start this year I 
will be too old to learn. 

I think you will be very glad to hear that my health 
is improving later on I will send you the photos of my 
father and myself so that you may know how I am 
getting on. I shall be much pleased if you will kindly 
advise me how to conduct myself in my studies and how 
to become a good man. 

June 5, 1901. 
I think you will be glad to hear that my health is 
getting improved day by day. 1 have given up study- 
ing Chinese temporarily and am paying my whole 
attention to English studies that I may be improved 
more rapidly on the English. I have copied down all 
the political letters from the missionaries to my father 
and also copied down all the answers to missionaries. 
I think it would be beneficial to me to have all these 
copied. (To copy them himself for practice.) I 
cannot tell you how earnest I am to go to America to 
have my education completed, a project which has 
been constantly recurring to my mind. 

July 19, 1901. 
I enjoy those books very much especially the Story 
of Great Americans for Little Americans. I admire 
their way of making their adventures and their extreme 
good conduct but the stories of Indians do not interest 
me very much. I nearly finished the Maxwell's Intro- 
ductory Lessons to English Grammar. I will be much 
pleased if you will kindly buy for me an advanced one 
by the same author and a modern history of all nations 
both of which I am anxious to study. 

August 22, 1901. 
Since I wrote the last list of books I have received 
eight more books in addition. I think I have enough 
easy readers, please send me the advanced ones. 

September 25, 1901. 
It is my desire to go to Ameiica but there is some 
thing obstructs me from going thus putting me in a 
state of great sorrow again. Your kind advice about 
my education was in every way agreeable and I shall 
try to follow it up. I have nearly finished the fourth 
reader, kindly inform me as to what to take next and 
further please buy for me such books as would be 
necessary in order to fit myself for the American high 
school. I think that you will be very interested to 
hear that the Chinese examinations have been changed, 
all the degrees of Chinese scholars will depend upon 



examinations upon modern subjects such as Chinese 
and foreign politics, sciences and Chinese classics. 
Sincerely your scholar, 
Yuan Yen Tai. 

In reply to my inquiry, one who was in a 
position to know wrote me under date of July 
16, 1901, "Concerning your former pupil, the 
latest news is that the young man is far from 
well, yet he works away at his English most 
laboriously, spending hours over his North 
China Herald." 

It is chiefly because this young man is rep- 
resentative of a large number of young men in 
China that he is so interesting. 

It is this class of young men, the coming 
leaders of China, who have capacity and high 
ambition, who throughout the Empire are to- 
day urgent in their desire for teachers of West- 
ern learning. 

As a plea for the young men and also for 
the young women of China we should consider 
the comparative need : for example, New York 
and New England, with a population of 
thirteen millions, in addition to hundreds of 
splendidly equipped high schools, has fifty- 
five colleges, with an endowment in property 
and invested funds of $99,000,000. The two 
provinces in South China, a little greater in 
area than New York and New England, with a 
population of thirty-five millions, has but one 
institution planning to do real college work, at 
Canton, with an endowment of only about 
$100,000, which, with its four American prof es- 
sors, faces one of the most magnificent oppor- 
tunities for Christian enterprise in all histoiy. 



MAY 14 1902 



I \j\jt i fun,. -V wrv [ , , 

MAY 14 1902 



THE WILLETT PRESS 
NEW YORK 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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